First let me say that I'm not an expert at this. In fact, this is the first time I've done it. There could well be better ways to do this. If you have any suggestions please post them. We can all learn.

Some words about safety:

Please use safe jacking techniques. When you have the car up on stands go around it try to knock it off. If you manage to, you may have just saved yourself a serious injury.

Doing this job involves handling compressed coil springs. Be careful and treat them as if they could bust loose at any time.

How-To

Jack the front of the car up and loosen the two strut to knuckle bolts at the bottom of the strut. Do not remove the bolts at this time.

On some models the bracket is riveted to the strut and the rivet will have to be drilled. The KYB struts came with a hole for this bracket.

Remove the strut to body nuts at the top of the strut. These bolts are supposed to be replaced when they are removed. However, the dealer didn't have any and members of the forum said they can be reused, so I reused them. DO NOT remove the large nut in the center of the strut at this time.

Note that I've pulled one of the grommets holding the ABS sensor wire out of the bracket. I did this before observing that the bracket wasn't riveted to the strut. It was completely unnecessary on this car.

The strut will come out of the car as a complete assembly spring and all. Now place your spring compressors on the spring.

This was the first time I'd done this and it worked fine. However, it would have been better to put the spring compressors on facing the other way.

Tighten the spring compressors one at a time switching about every ½ inch. Until you can move the spring up and down in the strut assembly. I did it with an impact wrench. It looked like it would be a PITA with hand tools.

Once the spring is compressed, use a T-45 torx wrench to hold the strut rod and remove the center nut with a 22mm box end wrench. If you aren't expecting it, you will get a big surprise when you pull off the strut mount.

This was one thing that I couldn't find much information about. I knew there were loose bearings in there, but I wasn't sure where. Now I know. I suggest you pull that mount over a container to catch the bearings like I did on the second strut. After gathering up all the bearings, complete disassembling the strut assembly. If you aren't replacing springs, you can leave the bottom part of the strut mount in the spring.

Clean and repack the bearings with grease. I used silicone grease because it was nice and thick to hold the bearings in place. Then reassemble the strut assembly with the new struts. There seems to be some disagreement about turning the strut rod. The FSM says to turn the strut rod to torque the rod. Several other sources I've seen say that turning the strut rod is a no-no. So, to be on the safe side I used a crowsfoot wrench. On the KYBs a 6mm hex holds the rod and the new nut is a 19mm.

The nut is supposed to be torqued to 37 ftlbs. However, my engineering training got the best of me here. The crowsfoot adds about an inch of leverage to the torque seen by the torque wrench. So the wrench is actually seeing 13 inch lbs rather than foot lbs. My calculations said that to apply 37 ftlbs at the nut, I needed to set the wrench to 34.15 ftlbs. So, I set it a little over 34 ftlbs. That's probably overkill on torquing, but that's what I get for having engineering training.

In the above picture the top of the strut is 180 degrees out from where it needs to be when the strut is in the car. I found on subsequent struts it's better to put things together approximately in the orientation they are going to be in when the strut goes back on the car.

To put the strut back on the car put the top part of the strut assembly into place and put the strut to body nuts in place a few turns. Don't torque them down yet.

Get the bolts in place on the bottom part of the strut. Remember the knuckle can be moved up and down as well as in and out. A good sized punch is helpful getting the holes lined up. Once the bottom bolts are in place god ahead and torque them down. They should be tightened to 121 ftlbs. In other words pretty darn tight.

After the bottom bolts are in you can tighten the strut to body bolts to 21 ftlbs.

I didn't intend to add anything about the second front strut because it should be just like the first one. However, I hit an interesting snag.

After the top nuts are loose lower the jack and remove the strut to knuckle bolts and remove the strut assembly. Disassembling reassembling the rear strut assembly is very similar to the front. Thankfully there's no bearings to deal with. So, I'll just provide pictures. You'll note that I have the compressors turned the other way this time.

The FSM says to put the strut to knuckle bolts in and then jack the knuckle up to get the strut to body nuts in their holes, but I thought my chances of hitting that first try were zilch. So, I got my wife to get in the car, guide the strut in and place the strut to body nuts on a few threads. Then I put on the strut to knuckle bolts.

Note that the rear sway bar bracket (lower left in pic) attaches to the strut bolts. Once the bolts were in they were torqued to 121 ftlbs.

Then torque the strut to body nuts.

I hit a snag trying to get the seatbelt back on. It had pulled in enough of the belt that it wouldn't go back on and it wouldn't release it. According to the FSM the seatbelt module must be level and pull in one inch of belt to release. Sure enough that did it.

Continued....

...There is nothing more frightening than ignorance in action.

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Once you've done the other strut you can put the wheels on and get the car on the ground. You'll need to get an alignment. The KYB's bottom bolt hole is slotted and can be used to adjust the camber. Your replacement struts may or may not have this feature. Make note of whether they do so you can tell the shop. Otherwise you might wind up paying extra for a camber kit.

...There is nothing more frightening than ignorance in action.

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Key Statics:
Bought new in 1996.
Current miles: 132,000
Struts & coils: original
Age 13 years
Condition after removal: oil seal still working - no leaks, but all gas was gone - push strut rod down and it stays down.

Sturt tower bearings & rubber: good condition, reused.

I just changed the front struts on my 1997 saturn sw2 (Generation 2) with Monroe Sensa-Trac Struts and McQuay-Norris variable rate coil springs (Part# FCS664V). The springs are great the car is much better of bumps now. The control in hard corning is greatly improved.

No Strut CAPS: my struts did not have caps to hold the boot in place - that is accomplished with a metal lip on the strut.

Bearings:
Compress the coil spring, then put vicegrips on the shaft to hold it and remove the nut. Saturn uses a weird star / torx to hold the shaft in place the vice grip works great and it doesn't matter if the shaft scratches since the strut is being replaced.

Stand the strut up or on the side gently pry the rubber "hat" off the top of the coil. Seperate the rubber and plactic cage for the bearings - no need for a bucket.

Clean the bearing cage to keep dirt from getting in. Gently twist open and add some grease.

Reassemble - using whiteout markes and reinstall.

See my photos.

Safety TIP:
craftsman coil spring compressor tool $50 (purch 2008 and made in the USA, don't trust cheap foreign comprssors where the threaded rod is warped even when new)

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McQuay-Norris variable rate coil springs (Part# FCS664V for car with AC if no AC order FCS662V) both purchased at Kragen / O'Reilly. Note coil springs are sold in pairs and cost $70 for the pair. I paid $64 for each strut at Kragen.

One last item. I had a mysterious noise coming from the front of the car on the passenger side down low. I replaced the passenger side fron CV axle but the noise remained.

After replacing the front struts the noise is gone.

Conclusion: the noise was coming from the Right Front Strut. It was a dull noise that was hard to hear and happened with the engine on or off and in neutral or in any gear. It sounded like someone tapping the bottom of the car with a rubber mallet.

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Thanks Mrbios. Your video saved my sanity. I would will you my first born, but he would not be too happy with that. The alignment of the hole and the bolt with the notch is not something that they tell you about in the manuals.

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I have hit a bit of a snag. After installing the rebuilt strut I can not seem to install the assembly into the steering knuckle. No matter how hard I push it down it will not seem to install properly. Any advise is most welcome and appreciated.

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Could you post or email me a photo. Hold the strut and have someone else take the pictures. I am assuming you inserted the strut and tightened the 3 bolts at the top? Could you have mixed up left/right struts?

Also, take a breather. It is easy to jab the cv boot or damage the brake line so slow down take a step back to re-think your approach. Struts, as with any repair, can be frustrating and involve some surprises

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OK, boy am I embarrassed and feel stupid. My houses garage fell down in the 1970s well before I bought it. As such I work in the street in front of my house. The result of this is that I usually work on one wheel at a time.

I only had one wheel jacked up. I ignored Stu's (me) 1rst rule of mechanics. If it doesn't fit right, I probably am missing something really stupid. So live and learn.

Moral of the story

IF YOU WANT YOUR STRUTS TO FIT IN YOUR CAR GET BOTH WHEELS OFF THE DARN GROUND.

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....brake rotor, axle etc are not that easy. it usually takes about 4-5 hours.

I changed the struts on my '97 sw2 & my wife's 2001 honda civic at about 130K on each car (original struts and we are the original owners) and learned some interesting lessons...

When? At around 60K miles if you are a mellow driver like me and my wife your struts are ready to retire. But, most people don't and as a result the handling suffers and especially bottoming out over speed bumps etc - after installing new struts I have experienced ZERO bottom outs!

The front on both cars was not that bad. The axle and brake rotor / caliper etc did NOT need to be removed. The job involves some danger to your fingers and body if the spring gets loose.

Now onto the interesting parts...

I replace all 4 struts on both cars. My saturns struts were really tired. My wife's civic had a leaking strut in front and so the front of the car bottomed out easily as it was mush. Changing rear struts of the civic were very difficult. The top and bottom are offset and you have to remove carpet in the trunk! Also, the REAR struts in the civic were like brand new after 120K miles so changing them was a waste of time and money.

Coil springs... I replaced the front coils with Mcay Norris, which got rid of the sag. The spring was wound differently than the factory. I get a "click" over bumps and rubber noise from the strut tower when turing into a parking space.

Strut Tower Bearings: both cars were in like new condition and you don't need to worry about changing them.

It took about 1 hr for each front strut on both cars - but due to the issue trying to get the mccay noris I removed and refited one or both but they still are really right. My wifes car came out perfect but aligning the rear struts took like 4+ hours - you really should make an alignment template before dissemblying them.

Happy strutting!

Last edited by mrbios; 02-26-2010 at 12:27 AM..

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